Between Jessica Rose’s poetry and prose, a central theme in her story is a commitment to achieving her goals.
Jessica Rose is a third-year English student who self-published her book, “The World Above the Waves,” in 2022. These past three years at UCLA, she said, have strengthened her overall writing skills significantly. She said she is focused on completing a challenge to write 100,000 words of creative writing by the day of her graduation, June 12.
“If I decide that I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it,” Rose said. “It really managed to show me how much I can actually do and how much people in general can actually do when they set their minds to something.”
Rose said she has always been drawn to writing and wrote her first book at age seven. She officially self-published her book “The World Above the Waves” through IngramSpark, a platform where she had control over the formatting, cover and content. She said it was important for the book to maintain its LGBTQ+ themes, which are often marginalized in other stories, and embrace the story’s queer focus. By self-publishing, she was able to curate the story without having to sacrifice the integrity of her book, she added.
Three years into her time at UCLA, Rose said her writing has shifted, as she has been able to dive deeper into how to tell a story as well as understanding how important it is for a writer to constantly read. Through English 136B: “Creative Writing: Advanced Poetry,” she said she found mentorship under Professor Fred D’Aguiar, who is now advising her on her thesis project. From her classes, she said she has a deeper understanding of how to look at writing and understanding the significance of literary art forms intersecting.
“I learned how to write poetry and applied that to my long form work and give my prose a sense of poetics, giving my poetry a sense of narrative prose,” she said. “The whole mixing of literary art forms has been a huge skill that I’ve learned here at UCLA”.
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Rose is one of the executive poetry editors at UCLA’s literary magazine, Westwind. Through her role, she has developed an important skill for analyzing creative writing, she said. Rose said she can become attached to each word she writes, and editing has helped her to understand – from a publishing perspective – what to look for when editing and how to make something better. The skills that she is learning from as both a writer and editor independently are sharpened and help build on each other, creating a system with positive reinforcement, she said.
Rose said she created the 100,000-word challenge because she wanted to be able to have a project that could add to her portfolio and also allow her to fully immerse herself in her writing. As a part of this challenge, she said she is also working on submitting 100 scholarship and job applications and 100 submissions of literary work. This process has been documented on social media as a way to keep herself accountable, she said.
Wyatt Grover, Rose’s roommate and a third-year computer engineering student, said he has witnessed Rose’s extreme organizational skills. The content of her work is important, he said, as Rose believes writing is her purpose and she is dedicated to making the world better. As her roommate, he said he has seen how dedicated she is, whether that be in staying up for hours because she is writing or creating multiple detailed spreadsheets. He said he has already implemented small changes in his life because of her, such as reading more and becoming more organized.
Rose’s partner, Alyson Coles, said she has seen firsthand how impressive Rose’s dedication to her work and how skillful she is at structuring her tasks efficiently. She produces thought-provoking work and is inspired by what affects her in the world and that inspires the people around her, Coles said.
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“A lot of her creativity has to do with her being intellectual and the way she views the world,” Coles said. “She makes all of these different connections between things that a lot of times other people don’t see.”
Rose said the final chapter of her UCLA story will consist of her thesis project and writing challenge. She added that she plans on taking a gap year between graduation and graduate school to perfect her writing sample. She said she intends to be a professor of creative writing. She said she has learned it is important to pursue ambitions and that you will only miss out if you never try.
“I’m not sure if I’m good enough. I’m not sure if I’m smart enough. I’m not sure if this is enough,” she said. “Maybe you don’t think you’re good enough but the only way that you’re ever going to change that is if you start doing the thing.”
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